1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to child safety seats of the type used in vehicles and, more particularly, to a child safety seat to safely, conveniently and comfortably restrain a child in a car in the event of a sudden stop or turn, collision or other emergency.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vehicles, such as cars, are presently equipped with occupant restraining seat belts installed by the manufacturers of the cars. While such seat belts are adequate for restraining adults in the event of a sudden stop or turn, collision, or other emergency, most are inadequate for protecting children. As a result, a variety of specially designed child restraint devices have been designed and developed and are in widespread use today.
The child restraint device of this invention is an improvement over the prior art. The most commonly employed child restraint device includes a specially designed safety seat which rests on the car seat and which is secured in place by either the seat belts of the cars and/or by special belts. An associated array of straps secures the child to the safety seat. Such straps may include a horizontal waist strap, a vertical crotch strap and a pair of vertical shoulder straps. Because children vary considerably in size as they grow from infancy, the strap portion of the child safety seat is generally adjustable through a wide range of sizes to accommodate the particular child using the seat. Furthermore, many of the present strap arrays are relatively complicated to utilize because of the number and orientation of the belt sections utilized and adjustment features which they may incorporate. Their general inefficiency and complexity renders them difficult to install in a car and difficult for the placement and removal of a child. As a result their use is, unfortunately, often neglected.
Child safety seats have been secured to the seats of cars through various techniques which can be illustrated by reviewing the patent literature. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,859 to Henderson discloses a child safety seat secured to a car seat by the older style lap belt which functions to hold both the child and the safety seat in position during use. Such an arrangement was considered acceptable in its time. Such type of device, however, restrained the child and safety seat in a low position on the safety seat which, unfortunately, allowed for the forward tipping of the child and safety seat upon the occurrence of a sudden stop or turn, collision, or other emergency.
A partial solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Patent Number 3,563,600 to Converse which supplements the support provided by the lap belt with an additional strap releasably secured to a hook formed in the top of the safety seat. The additional strap is secured vertically around the back portion of the car seat. While such an arrangement assists in minimizing the forward tipping of the child safety seat, it is cumbersome to install and use and is no longer a viable alternative in view of the three-point safety-belt systems found in cars today.
A three-point safety belt system is formed of two belts secured to the car at three points. The two belts are coupled together at one end for releasable securement by the wearer to a buckle at a first fixed point on the car seat adjacent to the wearer. The lower belt is the horizontal lap belt extending over the wearer's lap to an adjacent second fixed point. The second or shoulder belt extends transversely from the buckle, angling upwardly across the wearer's chest and shoulder, to an elevated fixed third point.
Presently utilized child safety seats designed for securement by three-point safety belts generally secure only the lower portions of the child safety seat to the car seat. A representative arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,188 to Tsuge. According to the Tsuge disclosure, the three-point seat belt is fitted partially above and partially below the child in the safety seat. In other known safety seat systems, the three-point safety belt may be threaded through an arrangement of safety seat parts between the back of the safety seat and the front of the car seat. All such known arrangements for coupling child safety seats to car seats, however, secure only the lowermost regions of the child safety seat rendering both the coupled safety seat and child susceptible to forward tipping along with the potential for attendant harm to the child.
An optimum child safety seat would be something new which combines the benefits of the prior approaches without their shortcomings, i.e., a child safety seat which provides for improved safety of a child secured therein to preclude potentially harmful movement of the child and/or safety seat in the event of a sudden stop or turn, collision or other emergency which provides for improved user conveience during the installing of the safety seat to the seat of a car and during the placing of the child in the safety seat as well as during his or her removal therefrom to preclude avoiding the use of the safety seat due to its inconvenience and which provides for the comfort of the child in the safety seat due to its ability to be angularly repositioned without varying the tension forces of the restraining belts on the child.
As illustrated by the great number of prior patents and commercial devices, efforts are continuously being made in an attempt to more safely, conveniently and comfortably secure a child to a car seat through an improved safety seat and existing seat belt arrangements. None of these prior efforts, however, suggests the present inventive combination of component elements arranged and configured for the efficient solution of this problem as disclosed and claimed herein. Prior devices do not provide the benefits of the present invention which achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, through no increase in the number of functioning parts, at a minimum of cost and through the utilization of only readily available materials and conventional components.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a child safety seat which includes improved retaining components to better secure the safety seat to the seat of a car through a three-point seat belt at spaced upper and lower points thereby preclude tipping of the safety seat and injury to the child in the event of a sudden stop or turn, collision or other emergency and which also includes improved restraining components for greater comfort of the child in the safety seat whereby the angular position of the safety seat may be adjusted with respect to the seat of the car in which it is secured without varying the force of the restraining straps on the child.
It is a further object of the invention to improve the safety of child safety seats by precluding injury to a child seated in such a safety seat as caused by inadvertent tipping of the safety seat and child in the event of a sudden stop or turn, collision or other emergency.
It is yet a further object of the invention to improve the convenience of using a child safety seat, during the installing of the safety seat to the seat of a car through a standard three-point seat belt and during the placing of the child in the safety seat as well as during his or her removal to thereby preclude neglecting the use of the safety seat due to any possible inconvenience.
Lastly, it is yet an object of the invention to improve the comfort of child safety seats by allowing the angular position of the safety seat to be adjusted with respect to the seat of the car in which it is secured without varying the force of the restraining straps on the child in the safety seat.
These objects and advantages should be construed as merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the present invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and advantages as well as a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary and detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention in addition to the scope of the invention as defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.